IEEE-USA, the country’s largest engineering professional association, aims to help narrow the gender gap in STEM fields through a series of e-books about women engineers.

IEEE-USA has already released the first in the series, "Women in Engineering -- Book 1 (Volume 1): Inspire and Close the Gender Gap," which explores why even though women make up about half of the world's population, they are woefully underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) occupations.

Nita Patel, the book's author and IEEE Women in Engineering International chair, said when studying the complex reasons why more young girls are not pursuing STEM careers, "a few key themes – public stereotypes, inherent biases and lack of role models – emerge."

Women's participation in the workforce has increased significantly over the past few decades, and they now earn more college degrees than men. But while the demand for STEM-educated professionals has grown more than four times the rate of the U.S. labor force as a whole, women make up only about 11 percent of the world's electrical engineers and 18 percent of computer scientists, according to IEEE.

The trend is also noticeable at management levels. Less than 24 percent of senior managers globally are female, a figure that is even less in technology companies. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that only 3 percent of all firms going public in the past year had women chief executives.

"Although there are no magic elixirs, developing one-on-one mentoring relationships, providing female role models, and increasing the awareness of inaccurate biases and stereotypes can make a difference," Patel said in a statement. "We need more women in leadership roles."

This is Bizwomen’s second year hosting Mentoring Monday, a speed-coaching events that brings together high-level women in a variety of industries to offer advice and guidance to those coming up the ladder behind them. The trick? The mentoring happens in short, 7-minute bursts.